School Engagement and Support for the Transition to High School for Students with Learning Disabilities

Abstract

The transition from middle to high school is a critical moment in students’ academic careers, when school engagement, grades, and attendance tend to decline while misbehavior and reports of depression and loneliness rise. One promising area of research focuses on the potential of school efforts to support students’ transitions from middle to high school as a means to improve adjustment to high school for ninth graders. I investigated associations between types of support for transition to high school and students’ ninth-grade school engagement and academic performance, as well as the relation between transition support and graduation outcomes. Using data from the High School Longitudinal Study 2009, the study sample comprised approximately 808 students with learning disabilities (LD). Analyses incorporate covariates common to studies investigating transition outcomes. Multiple regression was used to determine the relation between support for transition and student outcomes; moderation analyses were used to investigate if parental and peer support influence the relation between school support for transition and outcomes. None of the supports for the transition to high school were consistently predictive of outcomes for students with LD in ninth grade, and the moderation analyses were not significant. Limitations in the ways the variables related to transition support and school engagement were conceptualized and constructed in HSLS:09 suggest a need for greater sophistication in the use of those constructs in nationally representative, large-scale surveys. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.